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Mar_4:1-9. See on Mat_13:1-9. Comp. Luk_8:4-8. Matthew has here a group of parables from the collection of Logia to the number of seven,—a later and richer selection than Mark gives with his three similitudes, the second of which, however (Mar_4:26-29), Matthew has not, because it probably was not embraced in the collection of Logia. See on Mar_4:26 ff. Matthew has worked by way of amplification, and not Mark by way of reducing and weakening (Hilgenfeld).
πάλιν , see Mar_3:7.
ἤρξατο ] For from καὶ συνάγεται onward is related what happened after the commencement of His teaching.
Mar_4:2. ἐν τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ ] in His doctrinal discourse. Of the many ( πολλά ) Mark adduces some.
Mar_4:7. συνέπνιξαν ] choked the germinating seed, compressing it. Comp. Theophylact, c. pl. vi. 11. 6 : δένδρα συμπνιγόμενα .
Mar_4:8. ἀναβαίνοντα καὶ αὐξανόμενον (see the critical remarks) is predicate of καρπόν , hence ἐδίδου καρπόν (and consequently also καρπὸν οὐκ ἔδωκε , Mar_4:7) is to be understood not of the grains of corn, but of the corn-stalks ascending and growing (shooting upward and continuing to grow). The produce of the grains is only mentioned in the sequel: καὶ ἔφερεν κ . τ . λ . In the classics also καρπός means generally that which grows in the field (Hom. Il. i. 156; Xen. de venat. v. 5; Plat. Theaet. p. 149 E, Crat. p. 410 C), as in the German Frucht, Früchte. Comp. καρποφορεῖ , Mar_4:28.
With the Recepta ἓν τριάκοντα is to be taken as: one bore thirty (neuter: nothing to be supplied), i.e. according to the connection: one grain, which had been sown, bore thirty grains, another sixty, and so on. On the usus loquendi, comp. Xen. Hell. vii. 4. 27: ἓν μέρος ἒλαβον Ἀργεῖοι , ἓν δὲ Θηβαῖοι , ἓν δὲ Ἀρκάδες , ἓν δὲ Μεσσήνιοι , Arist. Eth. Nic. vi. 1. 5; Sir_31:23 f. With the reading εἰς τριάκοντα (see the critical remarks) we must render: it bore up to thirty, and up to sixty, etc. If ἐν τριάκοντα be read, the meaning is: it bore in (at the rate of) thirty, etc., so that the fruit-bearing was consummated in thirty, and so on. Observe, further, how Mar_4:8 has changed the primitive form of the Logia-collection still preserved in Matthew, especially as to the climax of the fruitfulness, which in Matthew is descending, in Mark ascending.
Mar_4:9. καὶ ἔλεγεν ] “pausa frequens, sermonibus gravissimis interposita,” Bengel. Comp. Mar_2:27.